January 28, 2013

Lifestyles of the Rich and Eclamptic

For a long time I was completely out of the loop on TV shows. We gave away our TV in 1998, and while this had many happy effects it also meant that I was hopelessly lost when TV came up in conversation. It's surprising how often TV comes up in conversation.

Only recently have I taken to watching TV shows online. Now I know that Glee is not a show in which the happy muppets (like Elmo and Ernie) have voted the grumpy muppets (like Bert and Oscar) off the island and thus can effervesce to their fuzzy hearts' content. But Glee didn't suck me in like Downton Abbey.

I never thought I'd blog about TV, but I can't resist. Birth! Death! Drama! Spoilers ahoy--

1. Whenever I see a woman on the screen suffering through a contraction in bed I have to advise her through the monitor: Get UP! It hurts more BECAUSE you're lying down. Stand UP! Lean FORWARD! You'll feel BETTER! Don't complain that it hurts if you're HORIZONTAL!

I might not be a very patient doula. Although-- I would totally have felt bad about shouting "get UP!" at a woman with fulminant pre-eclampsia if she hadn't been fictional.

2. Is it really true that there was no treatment whatsoever? I am remembering a James Herriot story in which he blows off a man worried about his pregnant dog. He jolts awake in the middle of the night, saying, "Myrtle's got eclampsia!" He speeds over to the man's house and administers...something. I thought it was calcium but maybe that was for cows down with milk fever. Would it have been magnesium in that era? Speaking of things that make a person want to shout, how about those two august doctors standing agog?

4. Can you imagine if this had gone down in Dublin? They'd have assumed it was all Tom's fault for taking her to live among barbarians.

5. This was the first time I've ever shed a tear for a TV character. Sybil was so sweet and earnest and well-meaning.

I have been interrupted approximately 70 times to arrange ponies' manes and tails into pompadours. In my previous experiences of mothering 4-year-olds, the required skill set included things like "draw a skid steer loader that is clearly different from the mini-excavator you drew yesterday" and "identify a scelidosarus accurately while feigning interest in same." Not so much with the pompadours. I am interrupting my musings about Downton Abbey to tend to my ordinary life, which features no Mrs. Patmore and no O'Brien (though thank goodness for that, really), but I'd love to hear what you think about this development.

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He injected ... something. I think it was magnesium but hey, that's probably just projection, right? It was the 1930s, that eclamptic cow. So maybe it was a super-new treatment? Herriott was all about the super-new treatments in his books (which I totally love).

I have such a hard time with TV these days because the narratives are driven by externals (this actress wants to try something new, that show needs another season for syndication) and not by story-line concerns for themselves (he should have found the mother by now; it's OK for people to live happily ever after). I just feel jerked around by the writers.

I may still be bitter that Buffy didn't stay dead. That was clearly the proper ending to that story. Those extra two seasons making money for UPN? A narrative crime.

I woke up this morning in a funk because Sybil's dead and Cora's icing Robert. And I think I am more distressed about Cora and Robert than about Sybil. (That may be due to the fact that I inadvertently read a headline alluding to her impending death months ago while the show was airing in Britain. So for me it was sad, but no surprise.)

I looked it up right after the show, and they didn't start using magnesium until the 50's. I wondered the same thing about the delivery timing, if it would of made much difference. Very sad and totally caught me off guard. Also...didn't realize animals got eclampsia. Learn something everyday!

HAHAHAHAHA! Best post title EVER! I mean, Downton Abbey post at least.

I watched the whole season with this link that a friend posted on facebook (let me know if you're interested & I'll send it to you) and I'm dying, DYING to talk about DA with the world! (ok, with the internets at least).

so... thank you thank you thank you for posting about it. I wish it were fresh in my mind so I could comment more effectively.

I haven't done any research about eclampsia, but I know that my friend could TOTALLY have died when she gave birth to her (2.5 months premature) daughter. It was horribly scary, her doctor had missed the signs (she was super swollen) & she started having seizures in the shower. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital, they did a C-section, but she was still in great peril of dying for quite a while afterwards.

I don't know if anything can be done. I also know a blogger & writer (she wrote this story in the anthology _It's a Boy_ edited by Andy Buchanan, her name is Susan Ito) who had to have a late term abortion because **she was going to die** from eclampsia. I know, really really horribly sad.

I feel EXACTLY the same way when I see a woman giving birth lying down on TV. I won't talk about Downton, though, because I've seen the whole season and it's too hard not to give anything away. Also, have you watched Call the Midwife? It's excellent, very different from Downton but I think better. I think you'd really like it and the books it's based on.

Ahhh!!! As a recurrent pre-eclamptic, this episode TERRIFIED me!!! As do your thoughts re: the prognosis of the marginal difference between immediate Cesarean and natural delivery.

I initially agreed with Cora and was livid with Robert - if she were in the hospital, wouldn't she have had access to magnesium sulfate? - but if it wasn't actually given until the 50's, then my ire was misplaced and I'm glad I read your blog :)

I was with Cora, because I frankly was puzzled by Lord Grantham's whole dismissive attitude during the labor. But that's part and parcel of the writers' approach to character this season -- everyone is forced into these dramatic contortions to fit whatever drama is concocted, regardless if that's consistent with character developments in the last season.

Also didn't understand Mary's response to Edith asking if they'd get along in future. Why shouldn't they get along? What's to prevent them?

My main response to Sybil's death was a detached, "Well, that's bold." Much more moving to me was when Ethel had to give up her little boy -- I actually shed a tear. There was an honest pathos in that (perhaps because it had been set up last season) that I felt was lacking from Sybil's death. It's not the suddenness to which I object -- life is like that -- as much as the feeling that the writers were just reaching for some big mid-season shocker.

I think there are four books in total but I've only read the first. My library has the first, third, and fourth. I keep meaning to talk with the librarian and insist they get the second as well. I can't remember all the names. Shadows of the Workhouse? I'm sure googling her name will bring them up.

#3 - YES. THANK YOU.
This is what I keep saying! She's not being fair. There's no guarantee Sybil would have lived even with an immediate c-section. None! Women STILL die sometimes, even with the drugs we have available today.
But then again, the poor woman just lost her daughter. She's wild with grief, and anyone who has survived grief knows that your thoughts aren't really rational at times.
And then my family member/friend/store clerk nods and looks over my shoulder, saying awkwardly, "Um...yeah...so anyway..."
So maybe I should stop obsessing about it?